YouTube star MrBeast has made a massive name for himself by giving away cars, money, tech
gear and, most recently, food. In December, he launched 300 virtual kitchens as part of
a new food enterprise called MrBeast Burger. Here's the true story behind MrBeast's first
venture into the world of fast food.
"Name one other restaurant that looks like this and this."
While the YouTube video in which MrBeast and friends served their first customers might
make it look like you can visit this restaurant chain in person to pick up your burger and
fries, the actual operation is 100 percent delivery-only.
After taking over an existing restaurant to make the video happen, MrBeast Burger launched
in earnest as an online-only operation. So while people in the video walked away with
burgers, money, and sometimes both, people ordering online ended up having a totally
different kind of experience.
The company uses multiple third-party delivery apps to get food to customers, which can mean
the chain has less control when it comes to quality upon delivery.
Some customers complained online about ordering crispy french fries that turned soft during
the delivery process, but commentators like Keemstar defended MrBeast with the argument
that these kinds of things happen with all delivery restaurants, even well-established
ones. Other customers with air fryers made videos showing themselves getting good results
by re-crisping the fries themselves before digging in.
MrBeast himself addressed those quality complaints directly on December 20, 2020, writing on
Twitter in a reply to Keemstar,
"I’ll be the first to admit we are not perfect! An overwhelming majority of people are happy
with their orders but yeah, some people had problems and I will gladly refund them and
do what I have to to make it right!"
"How much money have you given away at the window?"
"A lot."
"How much food have you given away?"
"A lot."
"I'm going broke!"
For now all of the Mr Beast Burger locations are operating exclusively in the United States.
If Donaldson's Twitter feed is any indication, there could be plenty of demand in other countries,
including Australia, Canada, The Philippines and Mexico.
MrBeast Burger is a virtual kitchen concept, meaning that despite the viral video that
kicked off the brand, you can't actually go to any MrBeast Burger locations -- for all
intents and purposes, they only exist online. The credit for the idea goes to Virtual Dining
Concepts, the startup that Jimmy Donaldson, aka MrBeast, partnered with for the 300 restaurants.
The startup specializes in linking pre-existing restaurant kitchens with new virtual restaurant
concepts. Under this business model, an up-and-running restaurant kitchen can make food for another
brand while maintaining its own establishment.
Considering it had already established its delivery-only restaurant concept with other
big-name celebs like Mario Lopez and DJ Pauly D, Virtual Dining Concepts had the setup in
place and connections it needed to make the MrBeast Burger venture happen.
Restaurant chains whose kitchens MrBeast Burger has been using include Brio Italian Grille,
Buca di Beppo and Bravo Italian Mediterranean, as well as The Burger Boy location in Wilson,
North Carolina. Not only has the virtual MrBeast Burger concept proven successful for the company,
it might also be a way to support the partnered restaurants while providing jobs for food
industry workers. Now, MrBeast is looking for more restaurants to partner with.
Focusing on the growth of virtual restaurants instead of brick-and-mortars could be a more
long-lasting investment for MrBeast, as the COVID-19 pandemic might have gotten people
more used to ordering in.
Multiple MrBeast Burger kitchens opened on the same day, and since the chain follows
a virtual model, there is no "original" MrBeast Burger location where patrons can go to experience
history. The viral video featuring the MrBeast Burger giveaway took place at The Burger Boy
in Wilson, North Carolina, where Donaldson grew up.
By the end of 2020 there were 169 cities listed on the MrBeast Burger locations website, and
according to Donaldson's Twitter, the chain had already launched 300 restaurants nationwide.
The delivery-only model also means there are no actual addresses listed on the MrBeast
Burger website. But if you're concerned about how to track your order, rest assured: After
some MrBeast Burger fans couldn't find addresses of the locations post-launch, they created
a master list on Reddit. The list will at least give you an idea of how far a location
is from your home and how long delivery should take –- though the arrival time might depend
on how busy your local restaurant is when you order as much as it does on location.
After all the initial MrBeast Burger buzz, diners were waiting a long time for their
delivery orders, or noticing some mistakes in them. Despite a successful start for the
brand, it looks like MrBeast Burger might have some quirks to work out.
In addition to the free burgers given away during that day of filming in Wilson, North
Carolina, MrBeast Burger also gave away wads of cash to "customers" through their drive-through
window. A line of cars outside the brick-and-mortar location was so long — more than 20 miles
to be exact — that police officers had to shut down the restaurant for disrupting traffic.
Now that's what we call a successful launch.
Then there were the Apple products that were given away to customers and, at one point,
even a new car.
Will you get a tablet or a stack of bills nestled between some crinkle cut fries in
your next order? Probably not.
Now that the big promo push is over, you'll have to actually pay for your food, with an
average meal for one costing between $10 and $20 with tax, tip and delivery. The price
is in line with McDonalds but a bit less expensive than a place like Smashburger.
But even without free stuff to sweeten the pot, you can still feel good about engaging
in a charitable act with your order: Part of the money raised from sales is supposed
to go to feeding the hungry in America. And judging by app reviews, plenty of MrBeast's
fans are liking that part of the transaction.
The viral video "I Opened A Restaurant That Pays You To Eat At It," where MrBeast and
his friends announced the launch of the MrBeast Burger chain by running a temporary location
for a day, got so big that it became the number one trending video on YouTube.
And it wasn't just dumb luck. According to an interview with Bloomberg, Donaldson and
his friends spent months researching and analyzing what makes a video go viral and then integrating
what they learned into their own channel.
But it's no surprise that Donaldson's quirky burger shop video went viral: His breakthrough
was a video called "I Counted To 100,000!" where all he did was sit and count all the
way from 1 to 100,000, in a video that ended up being just under 24 hours long -- and that's
with almost 16 hours' worth of footage sped up for the sake of the upload. Sounds simple,
but it turned out to be a little bit genius, jumpstarting a YouTube empire.
Unlike with most fast food chains, the MrBeast menu is small: There are just three sandwiches,
and they're named after members of the store's team of employees.
There's a Beast Style burger for $6.99, a Chandler Style burger for $6.99, and for the
high rollers out there, a Chris style burger for $7.99.
The Beast Style is two seasoned smashed beef patties with a slice of American cheese, pickles,
diced white onion, mayo, ketchup and brown mustard on a soft roll, and you can upsize
to a triple patty burger for an extra $2.
The Chandler Style is the same two patties and cheese, but none of the other toppings
— essentially a plain double cheeseburger.
And the Chris Style is two seasoned patties with bacon, cheese and fries stuffed between
the buns.
The only other items on the menu are Karl's Grilled Cheese for $4.59, where the buns are
flipped so the domes are facing inward; a crispy chicken tender sandwich with mayo,
lettuce and pickles for $6.99; and a Nashville hot chicken sandwich which adds ketchup and
soaks the chicken in a spicy, juicy sauce.
There are also a couple of french fry options: spiced crinkle fries, and Beast Style fries
with caramelized onions, cheese, ketchup, mustard, mayo and pickles. You can add chopped
burger or bacon to those loaded fries, and you can also get them seasoned or unseasoned.
The only drink options are Pepsi and bottled water. Oh, and there's a chocolate chip cookie
available for dessert.
Instead of spending money on advertising, MrBeast simply tweeted about the launch and
made a YouTube video for his own popular channel. Why waste money on Instagram ads, Facebook
or even billboard ads when your audience is already following you?
Between the 10-minute viral video on the MrBeast YouTube channel with its 50 million subscribers,
plus MrBeast's 8.8 million followers on Twitter, 3.7 million followers on Facebook and 11.9
million followers on Instagram, he might have built a big enough audience to not need to
pay for marketing.
MrBeast also launched a separate "mrbeastburger" account on Instagram, which a couple of weeks
later already had over 60,000 followers. That's small for MrBeast, but we all know how it
might grow as he cross-promotes the new brand.
The Mr. Beast Burger app was also a beast on the App Store, clocking more downloads
at one point than YouTube. That's not total downloads, but downloads over a period of
time, which is still impressive when you're competing against media juggernauts like TikTok,
Facebook and YouTube.
While MrBeast joked about betraying his master in a reaction Tweet, it was probably pretty
amazing to briefly surpass the platform that birthed his success. He was, after all, the
top YouTube creator of 2020 -- and for a moment, his burger spinoff could reasonably claim
to be bigger than YouTube itself.
MrBeast Burger's success meant the app ended up crashing for a while on the day of its
launch, leading MrBeast to apologize to fans and quickly upgrade the servers to get everything
working again. But there still seemed to be some glitches with mixed up orders, which
some said could have been the app's fault or the fact that there were so many new locations
all at once.
Despite the problems, launching Mr. Beast Burger under his own app instead of relying
on pre-existing ones helps develop more brand loyalty, reduces fees paid to other third-party
apps and allows Donaldson to potentially translate those customers into more sales down the road
for additional MrBeast ventures.
But if you have problems with the MrBeast Burger app, you can also place orders on Grubhub,
Doordash, UberEats, Postmates and directly from the MrBeast Burger website.
But how good is it really?
As for how good MrBeast Burger food tastes, the reviews are mixed. According to one YouTuber,
the bun is fluffy, and the seasoning is tasty, while the cheese is gooey and set off well
by the crispy bacon. Other reviewers have expressed concern about the quality of a MrBeast
burger after transit. Specifically, some don't like the greasiness of the Chris burger that
comes with fries in the bun, and others noted the Chandler burger feeling distinctly dry.
But for every critic who thought the food was subpar, there's someone else who loved
their burger experience: In the Apple App Store there are plenty of mixed reviews, with
lots of MrBeast's loyal fans calling out the haters and swearing that they loved their
burgers, sandwiches and fries.
How long MrBeast Burger lasts will most likely depend on word of mouth and how smoothly the
business runs — but for now, the 300-restaurant rollout puts it in line with the number of
Smashburger, Shake Shack and In-N-Out Burger restaurants. Those restaurants had to grow
slowly and build a following, while MrBeast Burger started with a strong brand in place,
meaning some fans might be ordering the food simply because they believe in MrBeast.
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